100 Day Challenge - Day 98

Day 98 - A picture of you and your friends out somewhere.

 One of my all time favorite pictures.

100 Day Challenge - Day 92

Day 92 - A picture of your school.

 Oh, how I miss it.

In Rememberance

"I ask each of you to take the time to be a Hokie this week. Appreciate life a little more, take in every moment around you, count your blessings, tell the people around you that you love them, slow down, remember what's truly important in life. And live for those 32 that do not have that chance anymore."

Thankful Thursday: Thanksgiving Edition

On this Thanksgiving, I am thankful for: (in no particular order)

My Pop. 99 years and 9 months. God-fearing, hardworking, lovable, funny. My inspiration.
My Momma. Best friend. My  hero.
My Dad. My rock.

My boyfriend. My love.

My nephews. Teach me new things every time I'm with them. Let me experience the world through their eyes.
My extended family. Who love me like I'm their own.

My high school friends. My first understanding of true friendship.
My college friends, who have become my "adult" friends. My confidantes. My grounding force.
My Riva friends. My world travelers. No matter how long it's been since we've seen each other, it's always the same.
My faith. My health. My job.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Better Late than Never

So I promised a post on the Boise State game last week. But to be honest, I've been really disappointed in Hokie football, so I put it off for a little bit longer. But I realized that the game was about football, but also about friends and memories. So I'll focus on the positive for now...

I spent the night over @ Susan's the night before to make carpooling and getting everything together easier in the morning. After we packed the coolers and got everything and everyone together, we made a quick trip to the grocery store for some ice and pasta salad.  After realizing one store didn't have it, Susan had to leave me and her brother to finish doing the ice while she went on the hunt @ another grocery store.

After securing the pasta salad, we drove to the boy's house and unloaded the cars and loaded everything onto the bus. Our friend Colin had rented a charter bus for us all, 57 of us, and Susan (with me as an assistant) were in charge of the food and other necessities. After some stalling as we waited for other people (and drink consumption @ noon), we all piled onto the bus and headed to Fed-Ex.

On the bus, with our "bus buddies"

After a quick bus ride, there was little traffic, we pulled into the RV lot @ Fed-Ex. There was some confusion as to where our parking spot would be. We were under the impression that it was really close to the stadium, so we didn't put anything out because we thought we'd be moving in an hour and a half when the other parking lots opened @ 4. So we amused ourselves by playing beer pong, cornhole and 'shoulders.'

Tailgating time

Colin soon discovered that if we were to go to the parking lot we had a pass to, it would've been farther away, so we decided to stay in our place and put everything out. It was like a feeding frenzy, I barely got my hand out of the way while opening something before someone would stab a fork in it.

After everyone was fed, it was about time to actually start packing things up to head into the game. We don't mess around with missing the first part of the game. You have to be in the stands in order to jump to "Enter Sandman." So, we packed up everything and made our way to the stadium.

Inside the game

The band came on and did the typical formations, but no one was paying attention. You could feel the anticipation, waiting for the team. When the opening cords of the song started, people started screaming and then 73,000 started jumping. It really was like Christmas morning...

We all know how the game went. We played like crap. We got the lead. We blew the game. And I was a sad, sad girl...but again, other than the actual results of the game, it was an amazing time!

Love my Hokies, win or lose.

If it wasn't for those last 2 minutes...

The first quarter was horrible. We looked like a Rookie squad...which some may argue, we are. We have a lot of young guys and you could definitely tell that on Offense and Defense.

The second quarter was a little less horrible. We started to get our stuff together.

The second half was all in all a different team. Except for the last 2 minutes.

We came back from a deficit. We removed our heads from our butts and started to play football. We actually looked pretty good. Until the last 2 minutes. We let them march down the field. We let them get under our skin and got a personal foul. We let them score a touchdown. And then we couldn't do anything in return. The result...a loss by 3 points.

I am devastated. Do I realize it's just a game? yes. Do I realize that there are worse things in the world? Why, of course. Does that matter right now? Absolutely not.

Hopefully the Hokies will make it up to me for the rest of the season. And by that, I mean, NEVER lose again.

PS. Look for an upcoming post about the funness that was the tailgate beforehand. I'm going to write about that tomorrow probably...when I can appreciate the fun and not be a debbie downer about the result of the game.

Hokie Hokie Hokie Hi...

It feels like Christmas morning.

College football season is upon us.

Don't bother trying to contact me for the 3 hours on the Saturdays that the Hokies play, I will be busy.

Up first, Boise State.

Let's GO....

....HOKIES!

One last hoorah...

One of my bestest friends from college is getting married on July 11th, to celebrate that occasion (not that we ever need an excuse to party) we decided to get together in Richmond for her bachlorette party. Our good friend Allison did an AMAZING job @ planning everything.

Jen and I left @ 11:30 - planning on making the 1.5 hour drive and getting there around 2, just in time for the USA vs. Ghana game. We didn't end up getting there until 2:30, after sitting in traffic for what seemed like FOREVER. After we arrived @ Allison's place, and I was re-united with my favorite kitty, Ginger :) we made our way to the hotel. We stayed @ the Jefferson in downtown Richmond, and it was a super nice hotel. After showers, and getting ready we headed to BlackFinn for dinner and drinks. Some awesome food and a couple of hours later, the place moved the tables to make way for a dance floor. With some drinks and some music, we danced our little butts off. It was good to see everyone, and have such a fun time. I can't wait for Ashley and Anthony's wedding in 2 weeks!!

Oh how I miss college...

This past weekend I went down to Blacksburg to visit VT and go to the Spring Game/Alumni Tailgate. What actually ended up happening with Alumni Tailgating and going to El-Rod's...this is the only time I'd let myself miss a football game in Blacksburg. Considering we were scrimmaging ourselves, I say we'd win :)
We (Susan, Sarah, Jen and I) left Arlington around 2:15 on Friday afternoon. After sitting in traffic on 66 for 45 minutes to go about 5 miles (shocker) we finally got moving. A stop @ Chick-fil-a @ JMU, a driver switch and we were on our way again. Another traffic jam (in Roanoke) made our final journey time around 5 hours. When it usually take 3.5-4...so I guess, for a Friday afternoon, it wasn't too bad.

After eating dinner with Susan's family - yummy Spaghetti - we got ready and headed DT to Big Al's. Blacksburg is CROWDED on football game weekends, everyone knows that...but we didn't expect the spring game to bring in that big of a crowd. We were definitely wrong. There was barely a place to stand without getting molested as people tried to push past you. After a few hours of molestation, we decided to go to our friend's apartment. Where, someone was celebrating their 18th birthday. If that doesn't make you feel old...nothing will. I think the high-light of the night was on our way home, stopping @ Gumby's and getting pokey sticks. Definitely not on the diet, but a definite must when you're in Blacksburg.

On Saturday morning, we got up, had breakfast with Susan's family and then started to get ready to head to the tailgate. We got there around 11, and started drinking. It was definitely one of the best tailgates I've been to in the past few years. The turn out was amazing (it was awesome to see everyone) and the food was good :) Once the game started and people started trickling away, some of us decided to go to El-Rods for some food and Jumbo Margarita's...good life choices. After El-Rods, Susan, Jen and myself went back to Susan's Mom's and took a little nap.

After our nap, we got ready to go back to DT. After a few moments @ Big Al's we decided that we once again couldn't handle the crowd, and decided to move to TOTS. It was, surprisingly, uncrowded (which changed as the night wore on) and we got good spots (standing though). After a few hours and a couple of incidents, such as one person almost getting thrown out, and another person actually getting thrown out...we decided to throw in the towel.

It was a good/fun trip down to Blacksburg. It made me miss college, the people, the town and just generally not having that many responsibilities. We talked about how it was funny that when we were in college and alumni would come back and tell us just how awesome college was and to "never leave!" we'd just smile and nod. And now, we're those alumni...oh, kids these days :)